Author: rtrube54

Review: The Black Wolf

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Cover image of "The Black Wolf" by Louise Penny

The Black Wolf

The Black Wolf (Chief Inspector Gamache, 20), Louise Penny. Minotaur Books (ISBN: 9781250328175) 2025.

Summary: Having arrested the “Black Wolf” trying to poison Montreal, Gamache realizes this was but a prelude to a greater threat.

If you read The Grey Wolf, you knew this book was coming. And if you did not, stop right here. That book gives the background for this, and this review gives details that will spoil the end of the Grey Wolf.

Gamache and his team have barely stopped an attempt to poison Montreal’s water supply as part of a power grab. The supposed mastermind, Marcus Lauzon, the Deputy Prime Minister, is now in solitary confinement. But Gamache, recovering at home, having lost his hearing due to a gun discharge meant to kill him, is beginning to doubt that the threat has been removed. They just may have been diverted off the trail of something bigger.

Not knowing who to trust, he has brought his closest associates, Beauvoir and LaCoste to Three Pines. Quietly, they have been studying the notebooks and a map left by slain biologist, Charles Langlois. But most of his notations are cryptic, and a laptop that may offer the key is still missing.

Another clue is equally puzzling. The Grey Wolf had given them this warning:

In a dry and parched land, where there is no water.

What that means, they have no clue. Canada has an abundance of water.

Slowly they piece together clues that convince them something bigger is going on. Woven into it are forest fires, atmospheric conditions, secret war plans and a treasonous international collaboration.

But back to Gamache’s doubts as to the identity of the Black Wolf. Is it Jeanne Caron, the popular current Prime Minister, a mob boss, or someone else? Or could it even be Lauzon? Penny tantalizes us with this throughout the book.

Like The Madness of Crowds, the book has surprised many readers with its prescience as to current events. In light of this, Penny includes an author note at the beginning of the book that she submitted the book to her publisher in September 2024, predating events that followed the U.S. presidential election in 2024. Most striking are her references to Canada as a “fifty-first state.”

It’s also striking that two meetings occur at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the US/Canada border. A black taped line runs through the middle of the building denoting the border. It has been a unique place where Canadians and Americans mix without checkpoints. Until this year. Now Canadians can’t enter the grand entrance on the US side without going through border control. An emergency exit on the Canada side serves as a temporary entrance.

Beyond details like this Penny explores our brave new social media world and its capacity for misinformation and deep fakes where interviews and videos can be doctored to say the opposite of what they were meant to reveal. In addition, Penny explores the international implications of climate-related events including fires, smoke pollution, and water shortages.

Like many of Penny’s books, this one has a hair-raising finish, one that stretched plausibility for me at points. However, one of the most interesting plot elements is that there is a point at which Gamache intentionally misleads Beauvoir. One senses that something shifts in their relationship. Plot material for a future book?

However, her larger scenario didn’t stretch plausibility. It was bleak and scarily realistic for me. It was only relieved by the beautifully ordinary life of Three Pines with an eccentric poet and her  duck Rosa, and all the people who gather at the Bistro for exquisitely good food. Perhaps that is a parable of how we must live in our time. That is, we enjoy the good, true, and beautiful of the given day, thankful for and praying for the Gamaches that stand between us and annihilation.

Review: Eating with Jesus

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Cover image of "Eating with Jesus by Robert D. Cornwall

Eating with Jesus

Eating with Jesus, Robert D. Cornwall. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385213450) 2025.

Summary: An argument against restrictions or “fences” around the Lord’s table, welcoming all who will to come and encounter Christ.

When your church has communion or celebrates the Eucharist or Lord’s table, may all who wish to come, participate? Or is participation qualified in some way? Once, while visiting a church in a different denomination than my own, i needed to be interviewed by an elder and complete a form before being permitted to take communion. Another time, I was a guest in a service celebrating the Jubilee year of my former spiritual director. It was deeply meaningful, but when it came time to partake in the Eucharist, I knew that church permitted the Eucharist only to those received into the church, and so I refrained out of respect. But I felt left out.

Robert D. Cornwall asks whether it is consistent with the table Jesus kept to erect such “fences” to coming to the Lord’s table. He argues that it is not. Part One of the book lays out his argument. Part Two then offers reflections on a number of relevant passages. The appendices offer resources including liturgies and prayers for an open table.

First of all, Cornwall lays out biblical and theological foundations exploring the significance of Communion including its Passover roots, New Covenant significance, and as a meal of thanksgiving, unity, and encounter with Jesus. Then he turns to the history of restrictions to participation. He argues that 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 reflected the discriminatory practices in Corinth in which more “entitled” persons ate, leaving others to go hungry. They devalued both the bread and cup and the body of fellow believers. It’s not so much a restriction as a warning about their behavior toward fellow believers.

Thus, he contends that the New Testament offers no restrictions and opens the table to be shared by Jew and Gentile. Rather, restrictions came in subsequent centuries, requiring baptism after a lengthy catechesis. While in the modern period, ecumenism has led to mutual recognition of baptisms in many denominations, restrictions remain barring the table to unbaptized, or unconfirmed children, and to the unbaptized, including those who have yet to profess faith.

While upholding the importance of baptism as one’s visible profession of faith and initiation into the church, Cornwall does not believe this should bar those who would come. He argues that Jesus placed no such restrictions. Even sinners were welcome to his table, often with transforming effects. He argues that if this is the Lord’s table and not the church’s, Jesus is the host. He does not need us to “gatekeep.” Cornwall also includes a chapter on the COVID pandemic, when online participation ruled out such gatekeeping.

Positively, he then considers more deeply the meaning of the table as a place of encounter with the risen Lord. This includes the significance this may have in welcoming non-believers to the table. While I haven’t observed the latter, I’ve seen non-believers converted during prayer gatherings and work trips with Christians. They experienced the reality of people encountering Jesus in a compelling way. This made sense to me.

Part Two turns to reflections on several biblical passages. Perhaps most unusual is Genesis 18, reflecting how Abraham’s hospitality to strangers is a model for us. In Matthew 9:9-13, he considers Jesus eating with sinners. Among the texts included, he turns again to 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 on the matter of eating worthily. The eschatological elements of the meal are explored in Matthew 26:26-30. The final reflection, on the Messianic banquet, offers a reading of Revelation 19:6-10.

In his concluding thoughts, Cornwall recasts the Lord’s table, not in ecclesiological, but rather missiological terms. Rather than the table being a closed place, Cornwall raises the missional potential of making the table a place of welcome.

I appreciated this argument. Reflecting on how I’ve been excluded, even as a believer from some tables, I am deeply sympathetic to what this might mean to seekers. After all, who would come to this table, understanding what it means, if not desirous of an encounter with Christ? In fact, might not such a desire reflect the work of the Holy Spirit, drawing one to faith? Why would we want to quench the Spirit? Also, I’ve found that it is a fool’s errand to try to defend Jesus, who welcomed sinners, and hostile religious leaders, and even Judas to his table. He’d rather we come, and bring both friends and strangers.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: December 7-13

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boy in brown and white plaid hoodie shirt sitting beside a christmas tree holding a stack of books
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The Weekly Wrap: December 7-13

Discovering Jane Austen

This year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. All my life I’ve avoided reading her. I’ll confess that it is probably at least a latent sexism that has kept me away. These were not the books my male friends read, if they read books.

What’s changed for me is the recognition that at one time there were only male voices in literary circles. Austen’s accomplishment is to center women’s voices in the relations of women and men. Only later in life have I begun to understand how necessary both sets of voices are in the human community (call it Male Pattern Stupidity on my part!). For Austen’s time, her accomplishment over the six novels that make up her works is a signal breakthrough in literature.

I’ve begun at the beginning, with Sense and Sensibility. Two sisters represent the debate of which is more important in the matters of the heart–sense (Elinor) or sensibility (Marianne). I look forward to discovering how things work out for the Dashwood sisters.

One thing I enjoy about Austen is that she unfolds the story in short chapters. So, as a reader, i can catch my breath wherever I need to without stopping in the middle of a chapter.

You won’t see my reviews until 2026. I hope to work through all six novels next year, thanks to the inexpensive deal on my Kindle. I’ll let you know how its going. And I’d enjoy hearing your experiences of reading Austen.

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of the hallmarks of the holidays is lots of food–and lots of scraps. Increasingly, we are becoming conscious of the environmental impacts of food waste. Tamar Adler is a cross between philosopher and cookbook author. In “A Different Kind of Materialism” we learn how Adler deals with kitchen scraps as ingredients for new dishes.

It was 1700 years ago this year that the first Council of Nicaea convened. In much recent writing, you would think that Nicaea suppressed truly radical ideas about the nature of Jesus. Carnegie-Mellon scholar Ed Simon argues that the most radical ideas were those on which the council reached consensus–the others are what you might expect people to come up with. On this anniversary year of the Council, he considers “The Legacy of Nicaea.”

Then, closer in time, a boy and his bear, Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh made their debut in 1926. In “Winnie-the-Pooh at 100: PW Talks with Gyles Brandreth,” Publishers Weekly interviews A.A. Milne’s biographer, exploring Milne’s complex life.

Closer still, do you remember the books you read fifty years ago, if you’ve been around that long? Mental Floss considers “7 Books That Somehow Turned 50 in 2025” and how they’ve fared.

Lastly, these books didn’t make the bestseller or “best books” lists in 2025. Our friends at the New York Times Book Review identify sixteen “gems” they think worthy our attention in “Our Favorite Hidden Gem Books of 2025.”

Quote of the Week

American poet Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830. This piece of wisdom may come in handy at holiday gatherings this year:

“Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.”

Miscellaneous Musings

ICYMI, I posted my “Bob on Books Best of 2025” yesterday. I picked 18 books out of the 243 I reviewed so far this year as “best” in different categories. Pulling that together offered a kind of retrospective look at a year of reading. I realized among other things that I read a number of classic mysteries, none of which made the list.

I also realized I could have had a Best Science Fiction/Fantasy choice with R.F. Kuang’s Katabasis. I just missed it because Goodreads substituted a weird cover I didn’t recognize under my five-star ratings. It’s worth a read as campus satire and as an exploration of the Faustian bargains that may tempt academics. Here’s a link to my review.

It’s getting tougher for bloggers like me to get review copies from some publishers. By playing the “importunate widow” and not taking no for an answer, I persuaded one publicist to send a book I really wanted to review, The Search for a Rational Faith by Daniel K. Williams. Hopefully, it will turn up in my mailbox. If not, I also made a connection with the author, a professor at one of my alma maters. The things you have to do! (And sometimes you just end up buying the book!).

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Robert D. Cornwall, Eating With Jesus

Tuesday Louise Penny, The Black Wolf

Wednesday: Agatha Christie, The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories

Thursday: Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Friday: David Paul Warners and Matthew Kuperus Heun, Beyond Stewardship

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 30-December 6.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Bob on Books Best of 2025

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Cover images of Bob on Books Best of 2025

Bob on Books Best of 2025

Arriving at a “best books” list is always a challenge. To date, I’ve reviewed 243 books this year and choosing among them was not easy. There are very good and worthwhile books not on this list. A few things about my choices. First, all these are books I’ve read and reviewed in 2025. Second, aside for a couple exceptional backlist books, most were published either late in 2024 or during 2025. This ruled out the mysteries I reviewed, which were all older classics. Finally, I did not name an overall best of the year–it felt too much like choosing between apples and oranges So, without further ado, here are my choices:

Fiction and Poetry

Best Fiction

Buckeye, Patrick Ryan. Random House (ISBN: 9780593595039) 2025. I loved this story centered around two couples in small town, post World War 2 northwest Ohio. Not only is this story of secrets between the couples that affect two boys finely written, Ryan captures the ethos of this part of Ohio perfectly. Review

Best Backlist Fiction

Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese. Vintage Books (ISBN: 9780375714368) 2010. Last year, I named Verghese’s Covenant of Water my best of the year. So, I went back to read this work and found the story of two boys born in tragedy and raised at an Ethiopian mission hospital. It was the best older fiction I’ve read. Review

Best Poetry

An Incremental Life, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609792) 2025. Poet Luci Shaw died December 1, a month short of 97. I’ve long loved her poetry that mixed scenes of nature with insights into the seasons of life and the transcendent. I reviewed her last published work earlier this year–quite amazing stuff for a poet in her 90’s and a gift by which to remember her. Review

Non-fiction

Best Biography

John Lewis: A Life, David Greenberg. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982142995) 2024. I admired John Lewis and his penchant for getting into “good trouble.” This biography helped me to understand the formative influences of faith and non-violent resistance in love the helped explain his resilience in the long fight. Review

Best History

The Gales of November, John U. Bacon. Liveright (ISBN: 9781324094647) 2025. The story of the Edmund Fitzgerald has long fascinated me for reasons I give in my review. John U. Bacon writes a compelling history of the Fitzgerald, weaving the boat’s construction and history, the personal histories of captain and crew, the conditions they faced during the storm and factors that may have contributed to the sinking. Review

Best Essays

History Matters, David McCullough (edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, foreword by Jon Meacham). Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668098998) 2025. I’ve read everything McCullough wrote, So these essays, edited posthumously by his daughter, were a gift. We not only learn about why history matters but he offers vignettes from his research, insights into his writing process, and lots of book recommendations! Review

Best Book on Technology and Society

Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth. Thesis (ISBN: 9780593850633) 2025. In a year dominated by news of the tech industry and the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Kingsnorth’s eloquent warning of how machine culture threatens culture and humanity is worth considering before we plunge into the brave new world that beckons. Review

Best Sports Book

The Last Manager, John W. Miller. Avid Reader Press (ISBN: 9781668030929) 2025. Two things I remembered about Earl Weaver, his on-field confrontations with umpires, and that he won. John Miller’s biography traces Weaver’s particular genius and how he changed the role of managers. Review

Best Ohio Book

Runs in the Family, Sarah Spain and Deland McCullough. Simon Element (ISBN: 9781668036280) 2025. Deland McCullough grew up in challenging circumstances on the east side of Youngstown, and then was a star football player for Campbell, and at Miami University, before going on to a successful coaching career. But the most powerful part of the story was his search for his biological parents and the great (and good) surprise when he learned who his biological father was. Review

Best Book on Books

World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading, Jeff Crosby, foreword by Carolyn Weber. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609457) 2025. I love books about books. Crosby knows his stuff as an author and publisher and leader of a trade association. Here, he explores why we read, offers tips on different genres, and how reading may be a spiritual practice in our lives. And he recommends a lot of books along the way! Review

Best Self Help

The Magic of Knowing What You Want, Tracey Gee. Revell (ISBN: 9780800746223) 2025. Tracy Gee writes for those at pivot points in their lives and careers. She contends that key the key to direction is know what you want. She takes people through a process of clarifying that and turning it into an action plan. Review

Christian Books

Best Spiritual Formation

Insane for the Light, Ronald Rolheiser. Image (ISBN: 9780593736463) 2025. Most spiritual formation books address either young adults or those at mid-life. What was so valuable about this book is that Fr. Rolheiser addresses later life and how even our dying my be a gift. Review

Best Bible Commentary

1 Corinthians: A Theological, Pastoral & Missional Commentary, Michael J. Gorman. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802882660) 2025. Gorman strikes a wonderful balance between scholarship and usability for pastors and other church teachers. And he focuses on Paul’s call for us to live cruciform lives. Review

Best Theology

Light Unapproachable, Ronni Kurtz. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007105) 2024. Ronni Kurtz writes about divine incomprehensibility without being incomprehensible! This is a rich book about how God’s gracious accommodation to his creatures. This slim volume is clear in its development and devotionally rich. Review

Best Religious Memoir

Why I Believe in God, Gerhard Lohfink, Linda M. Maloney, translator. Liturgical Press (ISBN: 9780814689974) 2025. One might think this would be a dense, erudite work. Rather, it is an extended testimony to the growth of Lohfink’s faith over the course of his life. Reading this made me want to read more of him! Review

Best Book on Theology and the Arts

Makers by Nature, Bruce Herman. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009802) 2025. This wonderful book by Christian artist and professor Bruce Herman explores, through a series of letters, calling, artistic process, style, and his own sense of the intersection of faith and art. Included are color plates of his work. Review

Best Children’s Book

Abigail and the Waterfall, Sandra L. Richter, illustrated by Michael Corsini. IVP Kids (ISBN: 9781514008928) 2025. This beautifully illustrated book describes a family hike to a waterfall, the creatures encountered, and the invitation this experience offers to care for God’s world. Review

Best Backlist Theology

Loving to Know, Esther Lightcap Meek. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781608999286) 2011. This book is a wonderful antidote to our epistemic crisis–our uncertainty about knowing the truth. Meek avoids both sterile rationalism and relativism in laying out an epistemology in which knowing is personal and relational, even as we focus on what is to be known. I wish I’d read this while I was still in icollegiate ministry! Review

Well, there it is, my best of 2025. Perhaps it will give you ideas for gifts. And maybe there is something here for you as well. I hope so!

Review: Watching the Chosen

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Cover image of "Watching the Chosen" Robert K. Garcia, Paul Gondreau, Patrick Gray, Douglas S. Huffman, editors

Watching The Chosen, Robert K. Garcia, Paul Gondreau, Patrick Gray, Douglas S. Huffman, editors. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802885463) 2025.

Summary: Essays exploring the imagination, storytelling, Christology and treatment of persons, especially women, in “The Chosen.”

Recently, another book I was reviewing had a chapter titled, “Can I call myself a Christian if I Don’t Watch The Chosen?” I resonated, having sometimes wondered in the last couple years whether I was the last Christian in my circles not to watch The Chosen. I’d just seen too many bad movies and videos by Christians, and I didn’t need to watch more. Then this book came. And I felt that I couldn’t review the book without having watched at least a bit of the series. Honestly, Season one, Episode one hooked me, when Jesus healed Mary Magdalene. Now I’m through most of Season Three, having watched most of what the book covers.

One of my discoveries is that many of the contributors to this volume had similar experiences to mine. That is, they approached skeptically and were won over by the imaginative storytelling, the very human and yet divine Jesus, and the way Jesus in The Chosen treats persons, especially women. The essays, seventeen in all, are divided under four topics.

Part One considers “Imagination and Interpretation.” Douglas S. Huffman leads off looking at how the series balances authenticity, plausibility, and relatability. But sometimes people have criticized the imaginative reading between the lines of scripture. David Kneip looks at Philip and Nathanael under the fig tree in John 1:43-51 and how the early church fathers offered similar renderings. Dolores G. Morris considers the show’s approach to the problem of evil and the hiddenness of God, noting the epistemic humility that runs throughout. She also responds to charges that the show adds to scripture, reminding critics that this is historical fiction based on the gospels, which viewers are urged to read. Concluding this section, Kenneth Gumbert, explores the wide appeal beyond Dallas Jenkins own evangelicalism, noting how the storytelling also appeals to the sacramental imagination.

Then Part Two digs more deeply into the storytelling and narrative art of the series. The first essay explores the storytelling through the lens of attachment theory and dual processing models of information. Then T. Adam Van Wert explores how The Chosen affirms the sufficiency of story to invite us to live within the story. Jeannine Hanger focuses on stories from John’s gospel and how these move viewers to take in more of scripture, a reaction of many. Finally, John Hilton III explores how to use The Chosen in the classroom. He offers a helpful set of questions to use with many episodes.

Part Three focuses on Christology and history. Paul Gandreau addresses the very human portrayal of Jesus in the context of historical Christological debates. Daniel M. Garland Jr. elaborates the bridegroom theology portrayed in the series’ treatments of John’s gospel. But how does the portrayal of Jesus relate to the “quests” for the historical Jesus? James F. Keating takes up this subject. Finally, in this section., Patrick Gray considers how The Chosen portrays the traditional Evangelists: Matthew, Luke, and John.

One of the most compelling aspects of The Chosen for me is how Jesus encounters various individuals. Jesse Stone considers this emotional resonance. Deborah Savage shows how this portrayal of Jesus in relationship exemplifies John Paul II’s personalism. Then Robert K. Garcia builds on this, showing the portrayal of the infinite worth of each individual. Finally, the concluding essays center on the women in The Chosen. The first shows how dialogue amplifies women’s voices. The second offers a rhetorical analysis of Jesus’ interactions with women and how these elevate the status of women.

In sum, reading these essays enhanced my appreciation for the storytelling artistry and the historical authenticity of the series. They also confirmed the high view of scripture evident in this “historical fiction.” All this suggests to me that the series creators have immersed themselves deeply in the gospel narratives. Above all, the discussion confirmed my own sense of the compelling portrayal of Jesus, the most believable I’ve seen. While one doesn’t need this book to watch The Chosen, reading it will enable you to enter more deeply into the series. It has for me.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus

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Cover image of "Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus" by Dave Ripper

Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus

Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus, Dave Ripper. InterVarsity Press | Formatio (ISBN: 9781514013106) 2025.

Summary: How the approach of Dallas Willard to reading scripture may transform us as disciples.

The late Dallas Willard was not only a distinguished academic philosopher. He also was known for his teaching on spiritual formation. At the heart of that teaching was the idea of experiencing transformation from the inside out, becoming more like Christ. Willard understood this in light of the biblical idea of discipleship. He observed that “disciple” occurs 269 times in the New Testament whereas “Christian” occurs only three times. For Willard, that transformation as disciples came, at least in part, through his reading of scripture. His own Bible was marked up on every page with underlines, circles, and notes.

As Dave Ripper read the works of Dallas Willard and then had the chance to meet him, Willard’s engagement with scripture fascinated him. Whereas for many, reading scripture was about information, Willard encountered Christ as he read scripture. So, Ripper wanted to read the Bible like Dallas Willard. Both during Willard’s life and through his writing, he came to understand how Willard immersed himself in the text But Willard never wrote a book about this. This is that book.

Ripper begins with Willard on John 17:3. Jesus says to his disciples, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (NIV). Willard stressed that this is relational, intimate, personal knowledge and by this we experience that eternal life of God in us now. Willard urged expectancy that as we read, we will experientially know God. He goes on to elaborate Willard’s view of scripture as establishing the boundaries of what he will say to us. While we may hear God in prayer, it will always be within these boundaries. But Willard expected God to speak, as Ripper describes in writing about Willard as a mystic. He believed God would both speak through this text and speak personally.

But how do we read like Willard? Similar to Mortimer Adler, Willard was a believer in marking up the text. He believed in the over-arching story of scripture of God forming a People for himself, a theme he traced in fifteen movements. Willard also believed it was more important to get scripture through us than to get through a lot of scripture. He stressed meditating on shorter texts and doing so through memorization of those texts.

Ripper explores Willard’s adaptation of both lectio divina and Ignatian approaches. Ripper then distills Willard’s ideas into a seven-step process defined by the acronym IMMERSE. These steps are;

  1. Immersion. Our posture of reverence and expectancy that God will speak.
  2. Meditation. Spending extended time mulling over what we’ve read before God.
  3. Memorization. Start with key passages and memorize as much as you can.
  4. Encounter. Using our imagination, we become a participant in the text, addressing and being addressed by God.
  5. Response. How are we being invited to act upon what we’ve heard? What does it mean for us to trust and obey?
  6. Supplication. Asking God for what we need for what we’ve heard to become so for us.
  7. Experience. Knowing God to be truly present with us amid our circumstances.

Through this process we move from communication to communion to union with God.

Then Ripper devotes two chapters to elaborating how Willard experienced the Old Testament and then the New. Finally, Ripper discusses how to teach scripture like Dallas Willard, offering ten short aphorisms. For example, the first is “speak from the overflow of a satisfied soul.” I liked the fourth as well: “Give ’em heaven!” If all of us who teach heeded these ten, the church would be immeasurably enriched. And it would not be at the expense of our souls.

This book is hardly a substitute for either the scriptures themselves, nor the writings of Dallas Willard. But the ideas here may well whet your appetite for a richer engagement with scripture and the Lord who waits to speak to us. It was twenty years ago that I heard Willard speak and read his books–and not all of them. Ripper’s study of Willard is a spur to me that led me to move a couple of the unread books to my TBR pile.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Loving to Know

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Cover image of "Loving to Know" by Esther Lightcap Meek

Loving to Know

Loving to Know, Esther Lightcap Meek. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781608999286) 2011.

Summary: A proposal for covenant epistemology, bridging the subject-object divide with the idea that knowing is a personal, loving act.

Esther Lightcap Meek believes we are in desperate need of “epistemological therapy.” Since Descartes, knowledge has been focused on objective facts and a sharp disjunct exists between the knowing subject and the thing known. It leads to all kinds of binaries: facts versus beliefs, science versus imagination and art, the public versus the private to name a few. More recently, the post-modern turn has challenged all this, proposing that our “objective” knowledge is socially constructed. Hence, truth is relative to the observer. We can all have our own truths. This explains the epistemic crisis of our age, one that has been called “post-truth.”

Esther Lightcap Meek offers an alternative epistemology which she frames for us in Loving to Know. The title offers a clue. Drawing foundationally on Michael Polanyi, she argues that true knowing is a personal loving act in relation to what is being known. She calls this “covenant epistemology,” signifying a committed personal relationship, an “interpersoned” character between knower and the known in the knowing.

Part One of her book explains why we need epistemological therapy and lays out the basic contours of her proposal, as discussed above. Most of the remainder of the book consists of “conversations” with thinkers who were influential for Meek. Essentially, she retraces her process in developing covenant epistemology.

Then Part Two consists of her interaction with Michael Polanyi and James Loader. Polanyi contributes the idea of knowing as subsidiary focal integration. We move between something focused upon and intuitive clues as to its nature, and knowing is the integration of the two, a transformative moment. Her conversation with James Loader further unpacks the transformative aspect.

But where does the covenantal aspect arise? Part three develops this in conversation with John Frame and Mike Williams. Frame sees human knowing as stewardship in response to God’s disclosed relationship of covenant relationship as sovereign Creator and Lord. Our knowing imitates God’s covenant relationship with the created order in understanding, preserving and developing that world. Williams likens covenant relationship to our marriage covenant, a pledge of care for that which we are knowing. We commit to love in order to know.

So, this all sounds very personal rather than the detached knowing that characterizes our “science.” Rather than back off this idea, Meek doubles down in part four. She draws on John MacMurray to support the interpersonal character of human knowing. Martin Buber’s shift from I-It” to “I-Thou” relationships further supports the interpersonal encounter in knowing. Meek includes one of several “Texture” sidebars at this point to discuss the nature of friendship as “knowing with” another. I thought this worth the price of admission! Following this, James Loader talks about knowing before the Holy, that all of our knowing is before, and part of, knowing God. In addition, there are chapters in this part on healthy interpersonhood, knowing as dance (Colin Gunton on perichoresis), and on reality as gift.

Finally, in part five, Meek draws all the threads of this 500 page work together in “Contours of Covenant Epistemology.” She then addresses how we might respond to all this in “inviting the real.” She describes this as an “etiquette” of knowing and offers specific practices for the well-mannered knower. For example, under comportment she discusses our pledge or covenant, trust, obedience, humility, patience, saying “you” and listening. She concludes by discussing “knowing for shalom,” her hope that covenant epistemology will indeed be transformative for her readers.

I believe Meek offers an effective epistemological therapy if we will receive it. For Meek, all knowing is an interpersonal loving act in the presence of our loving Creator and Lord. To love that which we seek to know is to treat it with personal care, allowing the beloved to disclose itself rather than imposing our understanding upon it. Covenantal knowing means a “knowing with” both the ultimate source of all knowledge but also with other knowers. All this undercuts the privatized assertion of “my truth.” Such knowing, as was the case with Polanyi, reconciles exacting processes and creative imagination, science and art. Above all, this proposal invites epistemological humility as we recognize that all our knowing is a gift from a good Creator.

Review: The Fate of the Day

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Cover image of "The Fate of the Day" by Rick Atkinson

The Fate of the Day

The Fate of the Day (The Revolution Trilogy), Rick Atkinson. Crown (ISBN: 9780593799185) 2025.

Summary: A history of the Revolutionary War covering the period between 1777 and 1780, from Ticonderoga to Charleston.

It is a season for for Revolutionary War history as the United States approaches its 250th birthday. Not only has Ken Burns just debuted a new series, Rick Atkinson has released the second volume of his Revolution Trilogy. A good Revolutionary War history has to accomplish a number of things well simultaneously. First of all, it has to chronicle the battles. Behind the conflicts, it needs to describe the command structures and the strategic challenges each faced. Then there is the politics. Washington’s efforts to get more support from Congress and each of the state governments. King George III and his cabinet ministers and Parliament. Louis XVI and French ambitions. Finally there is the diplomatic story, how the fledgling country enlisted France’s support and precipitated a world war.

What distinguishes this history is that Rick Atkinson offers us a chronological account of the events of 1777 to 1780 that incorporates all of these elements. For those who are fans of military history, Atkinson provides detailed battle accounts with battlefield maps. He traces the war in upstate New York from the fall of Ticonderoga to the decisive defeat of the over-extended British at Saratoga. Meanwhile, General Howe executes a counter-stroke in seizing Philadelphia after the defeat at Brandywine. Yet fears of being cut off lead the British to abandon both Philadelphia and Newport. The Continental Army has won few battles but the British really hold only territory around new York City.

Then General Clinton, Howe’s successor decides to exploit American weakness and the presence of sympathizers in the South. Atkinson traces the progress of Clinton’s second in command, Cornwallis from Savannah to the fall of Charleston. The southern part of the new country appears on the brink of falling as Atkinson’s account closes in 1780.

The losses in the South reflect Washington’s struggle to maintain the support of Congress and the States. Revolutionary fervor has cooled even as the British have refused to fold up. Meanwhile, Washington deals with tensions in his own command from Benedict Arnold who feels his contributions haven’t received their due and Charles Lee, who Washington must release. At the same time, two foreigners make signal contributions, Lafayette and Steuben.

But important elements of the conflict originated in Great Britain and France. Atkinson’s King George III comes off as a capable, cogent but stubborn leader. Privately, elements in his cabinet had doubts about the war. Lord North talked of retiring. Meanwhile, in France, Ben Franklin, along with the urgings of Lafayette succeeded in moving the French to increasing support, and ultimately, an alliance with Spain, and some inconclusive sea battles.

Atkinson offers a fascinating account weaving all these elements together, going into detail while maintaining the big picture. And that big picture? A Continental Army undersupplied and manned, avoiding defeat without the ability to decisively defeat the superior British forces in open battle. A British military wrestling with how to bring this conflict to an end. An entrenched King who allows a revolution to become the pretense to a world war with France and Spain.

While most of us know the rest of the story, Atkinson leaves us wondering how this impasse will resolve. I look forward to the concluding volume of this trilogy!

See my review of The British are Coming

The Weekly Wrap: November 30-December 6

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The Weekly Wrap: November 30-December 6

Will AI Replace Writers?

One of the articles posted in this Weekly Wrap addresses the concern of writers that AI will replace them. At least half of UK novelists think this possible. And to be honest, I think it possible. AI can produce works in the style of any writer. For some readers, this may be all that’s necessary. Personally, I think to accept that is “welcome to The Matrix” material.

Yet real novelists who are good at their work don’t write in a “style.” There is a certain mystery to the human creative process, but it involves synthesizing a variety of elements and one’s own vision of the world into a story that is recognizably unique.

The challenge is not to write better than Atwood, McEwan, or King (even if you are them). Rather, it is the hard work of birthing words on the page out of that mysterious process, something very different from Large Language Models. I suspect there is a significant cadre of readers who will be able to discern and want the products of such a process.

Still, I think there ought to be some safeguards. The biggest is transparency. Ultimately, most people don’t want to be deceived that something they thought human authored was not.

While Amazon will sell most anything, with some exceptions, bookstores don’t have to. And perhaps it is time for those who buy books to decide, will I buy AI-written books? The danger I see is that the low cost of producing AI books might allow discount pricing that makes this attractive to buyers on a budget. And if an AI book can be written that is a page-turner, that might be all you need at the airport. But do you want to fill your life with airport fare?

People feared that print books would die with the advent of e-books. They haven’t, although the mass market paperback may be on the ropes. I wonder if we will see something of the same here. I also wonder if we will see a resurgence of small indie publishers who will go against the grain of those publishing AI material. What strikes me is that publishers and authors won’t decide this. Readers will–at least I fervently hope so!

Five Articles Worth Reading

The article I referenced is “A troubling question has been raised around human authors vs AI.” The article raises an interesting question about only the rich being able to afford books by human authors.

Technology has also changed public discourse. Formerly this was the purview of a class of intelligentsia. Now everyone with a smartphone is part of the conversation. Dan Williams thinks the elimination of “gatekeeping” a good thing. In “Let’s Not Bring Back The Gatekeepers” he argues that the once privileged who are on the margins need to learn to engage and persuade, not whine about media-facilitated populism.

The theory that Hamlet was inspired by the death of Shakespeare’s son has gained currency with the publication Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet in 2020 and the movie adaptation of it recently released. James Shapiro engages this trend in “The Long History of the Hamnet Myth“

The work of giving reasons for one’s faith, know as apologetics, was always a part of my collegiate ministry experience. So I was very interested in this interview, “Godly Persuasion,” with Ohio historian Daniel K. Williams on his new book studying the character of Christian apologetics from the English Puritans down to contemporary evangelicals.

Finally, many are turning to Hannah Arendt as a kind of prophet concerning totalitarianism. In “Hannah Arendt Is Not Your Icon,” New York Times non-fiction reviewer Jennifer Szalai profiles Arendt and proposes that one may find someone quite different than who they are looking for.

Quote of the Week

Poet Rainer Maria Rilke was born December 4, 1875. There are various versions of this translated quote, but one I’ve seen is:

“Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.

Miscellaneous Musings

I’ve written before of the exceptional place Hearts and Minds Bookstore is. Owned by Byron and Beth Borger, they stock a wide array of thoughtful Christian books and other genres. They can get anything. Late last week I ordered three books. They arrived Tuesday, carefully packed and undamaged in a sturdy box. In addition, while on their website, you can sign up for Byron’s “Booknotes,” a regular newsletter reviewing books, usually on a theme, and all are discounted!

I’ll be compiling my “Best Books of 2025” to post next Friday. I choose an overall book as well as exceptional books in a number of categories. Don’t miss it!

I’ve just started Michael Grunwald’s We Are Eating the Earth which makes the case that our current practices of food production are unsustainable and contribute to climate change. I hope he offers practical help concerning what ordinary citizens can do.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Rick Atkinson, The Fate of the Day

Tuesday: Esther Lightcap Meek, Loving to Know

Wednesday: Dave Ripper, Experiencing Scripture as a Disciple of Jesus

Thursday: Robert Garcia, Paul Gondreau, Patrick Gray, Douglas S. Huffman, eds., Watching The Chosen

Friday: Bob on Books Best Books of 2025

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 30-December 6.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: Brave Companions

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Cover image of "Brave Companions" by David McCullough

Brave Companions

Brave Companions, David McCullough. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781668003541) 2022 (first published in 1991).

Summary: Short profiles of exceptional American men and women from biologist Louis Agassiz to writer Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Recently, I reviewed a posthumously published collection of essays by David McCullough. I’ve loved his work ever since devouring his mammoth biography of Harry Truman. But in browsing the list of his books, I discovered there was one I had missed–this one! Obviously I’ve now remedied it.

In this work, McCullough offers brief sketches of a number of extraordinary historical figures, mostly Americans. Collecting these essays for this book, McCullough observed:

“Reading these essays again, selecting and arranging them as a book, I am struck by how much they have in common. In my way, I see now, I have been writing about the same kinds of people all along. And I see, too, the extent to which they have revealed the world and times past for me, and things about myself, that I would not have known otherwise” (p. xi).

It was indeed the case that this collection revealed more than the people, but also glimpses of our world and history in five sections.

First, he addresses “Phenomena.” He begins with the extraordinary journey of Alexander von Humboldt in South America from 1799-1804, accompanied by Aime Bonpland. Essentially, the pair rediscovered rediscovered South America. He follows with a portrait of biologist Louis Agassiz, whose first instruction to students after giving them a preserved fish was “Oh, look at your fish!” He and Asa Gray were friends and phenomena at Harvard who came to loggerheads over Darwin’s theories, which Agassiz couldn’t accept. He concludes the section sketching the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. McCullough portrays the extraordinary renown for a woman she achieved as well as her renunciation of her father’s Calvinism.

Part Two on “The Real West” portrays life in the cattle town of Medora, in North Dakota’s Badlands. He does so though the lens of two figures, both who lost a fortune there–Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores. Roosevelt went there an asthmatic stripling. Work alongside cowboys exhilarated him and turned him into the adventurous, robust figure we know. The other vignette is of artist Frederic Remington, through whom many Americans saw the West portrayed.

In Part Three, McCullough turns to “Pioneers.” He begins with the pioneer railroad engineers who built the first Panama Railway in the early 1850’s, overcoming both topography and disease. The next two essays concern the Brooklyn Bridge, on which McCullough wrote a full-length book. The first focuses on the Roeblings, father and son. Washington Roebling’s extraordinary engineering accomplishment, despite the effects of Caisson’s Disease, is underscored in the second, in which McCullough chronicles his discovery of the meticulous engineering plans for the bridge. Many bore Roebling’s initials and are works of art. McCullough describes his efforts to preserve this treasure. Finally he portrays a trio of early aviators who also wrote: Charles Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and Beryl Markham.

Then in Part Four, McCullough turns to contemporaries in “Figures in a Landscape.” The first essay is a peril for anyone who already has too many books on the TBR pile. He profiles Conrad Richter, a novelist portraying life on America’s extending frontier. I learned he even wrote a trilogy on the early settlement of Ohio. Then he sketches the work of lawyer Henry Caudill and his fight against strip mining interests denuding the landscape of eastern Kentucky (which continues to this day). We meet zoologist Miriam Rothschild who has studied marine biology, entomology, and farming. Finally, he accompanies photographer David Plowden in his efforts to capture small town America.

The concluding Part Five, “On We Go” is different in not focusing on biography. First, McCullough remembers Washington, DC as he knew it–a very different place from today. The next is a from a magazine assignment, summarizing fifty years of history between 1936 and 1986. I lived through thirty-two of those years and the essay makes me think what I’d write about the next forty. Then McCullough advises Middlebury College graduates in a commencement speech to learn history by traveling. Finally, “Simon Willard’s Clock” is a reflection on the U.S. House of Representatives that I wish all present members of the House would read.

A few of these essays reprise material from McCullough’s longer books. Sometimes a snack rather than a full meal is just right and that is what these essays were. I was particularly fascinated to learn about Alexander von Humboldt, Conrad Richter, and Henry Caudill, a co-belligerent with Wendell Berry. But the particular strength of this book was the chance in brief to glimpse a number of seminal figures, and perhaps find one or two to probe more deeply. We all need our pantheon of brave companions.